The salted fish attack made the master carry the cub

Zong Wu thought very simply.

The child in the womb was born, and someone must take care of it, but it was obvious that he did not have the passion and love to take care of the child.

He practiced the way of ruthlessness, and it was already an exception among exceptions to choose to give birth to a child because of the sympathy in his heart.

If in the process of taking care of the child, he has some inseparable feelings for that little life, should he cultivate this way or not?

Since Zong Wu became conscious, he was taught by Huasheng Taoist priest to "put the Tao first" and "practice the Tao all his life". He firmly believes in these things, which is close to faith. The way of the future?

He is the Tao.

The Tao is him.

If he still exists, but cannot practice what he firmly believes, then the meaning of his existence may no longer be.

Qi Wushen didn't understand the entanglement of the master, he just felt that the master agreed to let him be the stepfather of the child, doesn't this mean that the relationship between him and the master can go further?

"You can just take care of the child, you don't have to take care of me." Zong Wu said lightly, and then walked up to check the group of pregnant women not far away who looked wary.

The master's slender figure was walking in front of him, dressed in plain white and wearing a short indigo brown that obviously didn't match, it felt like...a pure white flower was dyed with his color.

The young man lowered his head, thinking of what the master said just now, he felt somewhat unconcealable loss in his heart.

Although his original intention was to feel sorry for the child, Zong Wu was the one he wanted to take care of more. The child was at best a buy-one-get-one "gift".If there is no master, what's the use of having a child?

Because of Master's "heart of stone" and his clear distinction, the young man faintly felt unhappy.

Qi Wushen stood on the spot, sorting out his emotions.He pulled out the folding fan, unfolded it with a "swish", the folding fan shook gently in front of his chest, and soon returned to his previous appearance of a little boy who didn't bother his ears when everything was over.

"Master, did you find anything?" The young man walked lightly and stood beside Zong Wu.

At that time, Zong Wu was in a half-bent posture again. The young man glanced at him lightly, and still put his hands on the master's waist to bear some strength. From a distance, he looked like a lover cuddling close.

"Not yet." Zong Wu shook his head, slowly bent down, and was about to half sit on the straw mat.

Seeing this, the young man sat down faster, just in time to put his body under Zong Wu before he fell to the ground.

"Master, it's cold on the ground."

Zong Wu: "..."

Looking at the human-shaped cushion under him, he didn't resist after all, but just whispered: "Be more honest."

Even so, Zong Wu was not too worried.The main reason is that, now that he is outside, and there are still a few days before the return of love poison, his body should not be so unreserved.

"Okay." The little apprentice next to his ear smiled, and as expected, he obediently did not move, just doing his duty as a cushion.

"I also ask the immortal to help me see if there is any possibility of the baby in my stomach surviving."

The woman in front of her covered her face and wept.

"En." Zong Wu stretched out his hand and lightly placed it on the woman's wrist. His eyebrows were lowered, and his way of diagnosing the pulse looked like a beautiful ink painting with appropriate shades from a distance.

The other women on the straw mat looked at them with more kind eyes than before.

They whispered, and from the conversation, the boy heard the cause and effect of the incident.

It turned out that these women came here after going to Cumulus Temple to pray for the unborn baby.The man's arm was rotten just now, but he still looked complacent, but these women are more keenly aware of the abnormality of the current situation.

"I can't feel the baby moving, are we dead?" a woman asked.

It is said that mother and child are connected, even the unborn baby.

When they were in such a situation, the first thing they thought of was the baby in their womb.If there is only one person who cannot feel the presence of the child, it may be the child's problem, but if three or four women feel that the child is not moving at the same time, the problem may not be the child.

"Hey." One of them sighed, "If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have come to offer incense... If I hadn't come, maybe these things wouldn't have happened."

"If I hadn't come, my baby might have been born by now."

The boy turned his gaze to the woman who was speaking.

That person's belly was the biggest among them, and they seemed to be reaching up to the sky while sitting there. According to several people, they had been here for more than 20 days.But the baby who was supposed to be born was silent and silent.

"Time seems to have stopped in this place. I don't even know how much time has passed if the tower over there rings the bell every day at noon and midnight."

"Hey, when will such a day end?"

Several people sighed, but when they heard "the tower over there", the boy's mood was lifted.

Coincidentally, Zong Wu here also finished his pulse diagnosis and let go of the woman's hands.

"Don't be restless, mother and child will be safe." Zong Wu comforted in a shallow voice, but even Qi Wushen could hear that the meaning of comfort in these words was far greater than the actual meaning.

Hearing this, the discussions of those women were all sighed, and they also touched their stomachs in unison, with sad expressions.

The two got up, Zong Wu and Qi Wushen asked a few more questions about the pagoda, then left to meet Ji Sheng.

"There is a problem with Cumulus Cloud View! It is definitely the viewer who framed us and deliberately designed to keep us here."

"That's right, we were just invited to drink tea in the temple after the tea fighting meeting, and we appeared here when we woke up. It wasn't the people from Cumulus Cloud Temple who did it, who else?"

"That's right, they did it! You can see that the temple master has kind eyebrows and good intentions, and he might be planning some bad idea in his heart. In my opinion, he is the most suspect!"

"Yes, and that tower, it's not an ordinary tower at all!"

"I heard that cannibalism can improve cultivation, maybe those dead Taoist priests are planning to eat us and become immortals!"

When they talked about the place full of passion, it happened that Zong Wu and Qi Wushen also walked over.

The few people stopped discussing and looked at the young man together, there seemed to be some pointed taste in their eyes.

"Why are you alright?" One of them asked with a somewhat reproachful tone.

The young man laughed dumbly. He could understand the psychology of these people. They were all at the meeting at the time. He won the lottery and was safe and sound. However, the experience of this group of people was obviously much worse, and it is normal to be unbalanced.

"Didn't I come here too?" The young man spread his hands, with an annoyed expression on his face, "It's only a month later than you, but the result is the same." People's shoulders are all down, looking tired and decadent.

Seeing that his condition was no better than theirs, the group of people could not help but feel more balanced when they saw that he was clearly a young man without any youthful vigor. Someone even patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.

The young man calmly resolved the conflict, and asked in a timely manner: "The tower you mentioned just now is weird, what kind of weird method is it?"

According to his observations during the questioning just now, the people trapped here have also explored around, but no matter how they go, they always return to the original place quickly.

Looking around, the surrounding environment is almost the same, the only landmark building is on the tower with lights.

That is, the tower is their only clue.

"You don't know?" The speaker's tone was a little surprised.

Qi Wushen shook his head, although the tower was somewhat familiar, but he had seen too many majestic buildings, so he would not have much impression of a tower with nothing special.

"That's clearly the Book Collection Pavilion in Cumulus View!"

Hearing this, the young man looked back at the tower, and finally knew where the vaguely familiar feeling came from.

He really saw that tower, during the tea fight meeting.

clang - clang - clang -

At this moment, the ancient bronze bell under the double eaves of the library tower rang, and the deep and long-lasting sound of the bell resounded throughout the space, accompanied by echoes.

It was midnight.

With the lingering sound of the bell, a strong sense of drowsiness swept the entire space from far to near.

"What, what's the situation?" Ji Sheng murmured, his tone flustered, but as soon as he spoke, he fell limply on the straw mat.

"Master?"

In less than a breath, sleepiness also carried Zong Wu into dreamland.

Taking advantage of the last sliver of clarity, the young man pulled the master into his arms, and his hands were tightly clasped around Zong Wu's waist, like a lock that would never be unlocked.

-

tick... tick...

When the boy came back to his senses, he found that he was standing in a strange place.

The scene in front of me was a vast expanse of whiteness, which was completely different from the little light wrapped in the dark and thick fog before.

This place is so holy that it seems to be above the ninth heaven.

"Master? Chicken?"

The boy put his hand to his mouth and shouted to the surroundings.

Should not be ah.

Before falling asleep, he clearly hugged his master tightly, how could he disappear when he opened his eyes?

No, there is a problem, there is definitely a problem.

It is impossible for him to let go of Master, unless...he is still asleep!

The young man thought for a while, and felt that this idea should be the best explanation, so he stopped hesitating and began to explore ostentatiously.

Since it's a dream, it won't really hurt.

What was he worried about?

The place where it is now seems to be a snowfield.

Those white mist are not real fog, but the snow fog formed by the wind blowing up the snow on the ground.

It's just that, when he first entered the dreamland, the boy didn't feel the coldness of the snow mist immediately, so he didn't notice it quickly.

Wind and snow, meaning lingering.

The young man couldn't see the road in front of him clearly, he just moved forward based on his intuition.I don't know how far I walked, the sound of the wind in my ears became ethereal and ethereal, accompanied by the sound of the wind blowing through the silent mountains and forests.

Qi Wushen felt that the sound was very familiar, but for a while, he couldn't think of the corresponding memory, but vaguely felt that the sound was more vivid and real than what he remembered.

It's like a strange memory slowly coming to life.

After another walk, the sound came closer.

The feeling of being ethereal and ethereal diminished, and the sound became more real. This time, the young man accurately heard that the sound was the sound of the wind blowing through the birch and pine forests.

As for why these two kinds of trees, he is not clear.

But the inexplicable memories in his mind told him so.

At this moment, a familiar figure appeared in the misty wind and snow.

The young man took a closer look, was startled for a moment, and then quickened his pace.

"Master—"

He didn't know whether the master in front of him was real or just a dream, but the master was the master.

Zong Wu turned his head, and in the wind and snow, a familiar figure rushed towards him.

"cough……"

The snowy road was slippery, and the boy didn't stop, he threw himself into his arms, and fell into the soft snow quilt with his master in his arms.

"Yes, I'm sorry, Master, I didn't do it on purpose! Are you all right? Is the child all right?" The young man's eyes were very eager, compared to Zong Wu's expression, which was even colder, even with a hint of scrutiny .

Obviously, he was thinking about the same problem as the boy.

"Master, it's me, not the phantom in the dream." The young man smiled like a flower, and pinched his own face after saying a word to show his identity.

Zong Wu's eyes were still cold, and after a while, a few words spit out from his lips.

"Get off me first."

The young man leaned over and saw that because the action just now was too wild, he was now pressing on Zong Wu's body.He got up quickly, grabbed the master again, and brushed off the snow on the two of them.

Zong Wu was silent, but the young man suddenly discovered something unusual.

"Master, why do you have so much blood on your body?"

The hem of Zong Wu's clothes was almost soaked in blood, and looking up, there were also many spurts of blood, as if he had just experienced a fierce battle.

"I don't know." Zong Wu whispered, but the tone was not credible.

"Then let's go further." The young man said, he took Zong Wu's arm naturally, his feet were sticky in the snow, it was not convenient to walk, perhaps because of this, Zong Wu didn't wave away two people shaking hands.

The two walked for a while, and sure enough, they saw a vast green and white mountain forest appearing in the wind and snow.It just rightly confirms the fantasy in the teenager's mind.

"Master, do you know where this is? This disciple looks so familiar to me."

Hearing this, Zong Wu paused, but he quickly regained his composure.

"I don't know." He shook his head and said again, "There are not too many forests in the world, maybe you misremembered."

"is it?"

The boy habitually touched the folding fan at his waist, only to find that it was empty there. After a long while, he turned his head and thought about the second half of the master's sentence, and felt that it was a bit superfluous. Hazy feeling, as if deliberately hiding something.

The vast snow forest seemed to have no end, and after walking for a while, Zong Wu said that he was tired and wanted to take a rest.

The two of them stopped in front of a frozen lake, and the young man told his master to wait on the spot, while he went to the forest to pick up some broken wood, intending to set up a bonfire by the frozen lake to keep warm.

After a while, the bonfire was lit, and the jumping red flames reflected on the faces of the two of them and the glacier full of ice cracks.

While adding some scattered firewood to the bonfire, the boy chatted with Zong Wu casually.

"Master, how do you think we can go back?" Sitting on the snow, he looked up at Zong Wu who was standing alone in front of the glacier.

The swaying firelight reflected on the face of the master, accompanied by a large area of ​​shadow.

The boy pointed to the sky, and said again: "We have been walking here for so long, and the sky has not changed at all. This place seems to be more than just a dream."

"Hmm..." Zong Wu said nothing, his eyes were still fixed on the distant snowfield, no one knew what he was thinking at this moment.

"Master?" The young man got up and walked to Zong Wu's side. Although the position where the master stood could still be warmed by the fire, but the distance was too far, and the temperature that could be radiated was absolutely limited.

"What are you looking at?" He followed Zong Wu's line of sight, and there was nothing else but a tree being a tree.

"Have you been here before? Master." Qi Wushen asked.

For some reason, he inexplicably felt that Master was familiar with this place, and besides that, he had another basis.

——There are only his master and apprentice in this place. Since it is not his dream, it can only be Zong Wu's.

"No." Zong Wu said indifferently, and finally turned his gaze back to the little apprentice.

Qi Wushen also followed the master's line of sight to look at himself, he unexpectedly found that what he was wearing was not the usual indigo short brown, nor the inner obscene clothes.It's a rough sackcloth that I've never seen before.

The material and style of the clothes are unfamiliar, but they look a bit like those worn by villagers in Daizui Village.

The young man was stunned. He wanted to speak, but he caught a glimpse of the reflection in the frozen lake from the corner of his gaze.

Logically speaking, the ice layer on the lake is very thick, and there are many cracks, so the reflection in the lake should not be visible.

But at some point, the scenery on the lake changed quietly. At this time, the lake surface was like a mirror, clearly reflecting him and Zong Wu in front of the campfire.

Suddenly, Zong Wu took a step forward, and pressed Qi Wushen's face with jade-like cold hands.

The young man wanted to see the scene in the Qingshui mirror again, but his head was pressed tightly, and he couldn't turn around even if he wanted to. He didn't know why the master's wrist, which was so thin, suddenly burst into such a strong force.

"Master?" He was forced to look at Zong Wu, and he couldn't even dodge his eyes.

"How many times did we do that night?"

"what?"

The young man blushed from his master's sudden question. He just wanted to avoid it, but Zong Wu put more force in his hands, and his expression was extremely serious.

The young man had no choice but to answer, but his tone was a little false.

"Three times... but..."

He paused and said again, "But to be more specific, it should be four times. In the end, you fell asleep, and I..."

"I'm sorry, Master... Thank you for your hard work..." The young man lowered his head guiltily, his face turning red.

Zong Wu: "..."

Although his face was a little speechless, he still let go of the force in his hand.

"Master, why did you ask that question just now?" the young man lowered his head and asked, still a little embarrassed.

Zong Wu pointed to the surface of the lake, and the young man looked along, only to see his reflection on the mirror-like surface of the lake, but the position of Master's reflection was a majestic peacock.

"Is it to confuse, confuse, make us doubt each other, or kill each other?"

Zong Wu nodded.

What he saw in his eyes was similar to Qi Wushen, the only difference was that the appearance of the little apprentice turned into a peacock.

"So Master asked the question just now to verify whether I am the real person?"

Zong Wu nodded.

Qi Wushen understood, but he didn't intend to let Zong Wu go so easily.

"Master has tested me, so do I have to test you too?"

"Row."

The young man held up Zong Wu's face, just like Zong Wu pinched him just now, not letting the master move.

He said again: "So, whose child is in Master's belly?"

Zong Wu: "..."

He seriously suspected that the little apprentice didn't want to confirm his identity, but just wanted to ask him some questions that he wouldn't answer under normal circumstances.

He paused and said again: "Change to something that can be said."

The young man smiled slightly, and there was no disappointment in his eyes. Instead, he seemed to be catching a prey that had stepped into a trap, with a little pride in his scheme.

"It's okay to change it, but Master can't hide anymore this time." The young man said every word, as if warning that the next question would not be easy to answer.

"If Master doesn't answer," Qi Wushen pointed to the changed lake surface and said, "If you don't answer, this disciple may suspect that you were transformed by a monster."

Zong Wu: "..."

After a long while, I added "yes" uncertainly.

"Master, listen carefully, my question is—"

"Does Master like me? It's not the kind of master who likes his apprentices, but the kind who wants to be close, to be together, and to do many, many things."

"You need to answer positively."

Before falling into the dreamland, Zong Wu's answer was too cold and alienated, and the boy didn't like that kind of feeling.He doesn't want too much, he just wants to prove that he is different from others with Master.

He is the only apprentice of the master, but the years are long, and it is uncertain whether the master will have others in the future, so he must make sure that he is different from others in Zong Wu.

But Zong Wu didn't understand the psychology of the little apprentice.

dislike.

This idea jumped into his mind almost immediately.

How could he like it?

Not just the little apprentice, no matter who it is, he will not like it.

The way of ruthlessness, without desires and demands, is the way to get the way.

Only by being ruthless to everything can one transcend it and gain great love.

The answer was obvious, but for some reason, when the words came to his lips, he couldn't say anything.

It feels like a stick in the throat, probably so.

Zong Wu's heart was pounding.

Not throbbing, but afraid, he was very afraid.

He faintly felt that there was a crack in something in his heart.

——That was his heart.

At this moment, a distant and long chime sound suddenly sounded in the forest of Cen Ji Mountain, and the sound of the chime resounded through the ice lake, snow field and every corner of the surrounding area.

The familiar drowsiness swept over again, and the young man took advantage of the last moment when his spirit was still there, and once again hugged the master tightly in his arms.

Looking at the person tightly wrapped in his arms, he lowered his final voice and said with a bit of intimacy: "Master, don't play tricks, go out and tell your apprentice later, okay?"

Zong Wu: "..."

Then, sleepiness swept over, and the two fell into darkness.

-

In the thick dark mist, the orange light in the library tower flickered three times, the bell and chime fell, and the sound of reciting divine mantras came from the tower.

The sound entered my ears, but it became smaller and smaller.

When the chanting sound dissipated, the orange-yellow light in the Buddhist scriptures tower was a bit dimmer than when Qi Wushen and his party came.The dense dark mist around it approached again, as if it wanted to completely devour the light illuminated by the Buddhist scriptures tower.

-

"Ahem..." On the grass mat covered with moss, the young man leaned on the ground and slowly got up. He looked down at the person in his arms. At this moment, Zong Wu was still awake.

The master was wrapped in his indigo short brown dress, and Zong Wu's thin face was wrapped around Zong Wu's thin face with loose black hair, which made his delicate and fair face extraordinarily small, like an extremely exquisite jade object.

"Master, wake up." Qi Wushen patted the side of Zong Wu's face lightly.

Zong Wu didn't respond, the young man put his hand on the master's wrist and found that his pulse was stable.When the three of them left the inn, it was late at night, that is to say, the master walked all day and was woken up again in his sleep.

Thinking of this, the young man hugged his master even tighter. At the same time, he lowered his head and asked Ji Sheng who was not far away.

"Chicken, do you have any extra clothes?"

However, after a while, no one replied.

They fell asleep together, and logically they should wake up together, why didn't anyone reply?

The young man looked up at the straw mat in front of him, but saw that the seats where several acquaintances were sitting were empty, and even Ji Sheng had disappeared.

And the rest of the positions...

Those who were looking at them warily, many of them were holding their chests and taking a deep breath at this time, and the expressions on their faces were clearly written with the four characters "survival after the catastrophe".

The author says:

感谢在2022-06-2519：05：26-2022-06-2619：10：04期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦——

Thanks to the little angels who irrigate the nutrient solution: 5 bottles of baby sharks;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!